The cooperation of scientists, service providers and communities holds promise for public health - in particular with respect to research and quality assurance in health promotion and disease prevention with socially disadvantaged groups. Participatory approaches following the tradition of action research, such as participatory action research (PAR) and communitybased participatory research (CBPR), are applied and developed internationally, also in the health sciences. Research at the interface of science, service provision and communities was thus the focus of a conference at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB), 4.-6.10.2007. The conference was dedicated to an international and interdisciplinary exchange about methodological questions in participatory health research. The presentations of speakers from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Canada are documented, as well as results of the discussions among the conference participants including initial ideas regarding the development of a network for participatory health research in Germany.